Quote #8

How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be 'American' before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, & having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?

More from Edith Wharton

  1. Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet it alone.
  2. Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before.
  3. I wonder, among all the tangles of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo, & consequently suggests more tugging, & pain…
  4. True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.
  5. After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them & invent others that (one is…
  6. I have never known a novel that was good enough to be good in spite of its being adapted to the author's political views.
  7. The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it.
  8. When people ask for time, it's always for time to say no. Yes has one more letter in it, but it doesn't take half as long to say.

All Edith Wharton quotes